Previously, on the battlefield...
Session 53 - 20th of Elders, 1392
This week's adventurers:
Blossom (Rogue 4)
Mayfly (Magician 4)
Sotar (Cleric 4)
Liminal Space (Changeling 3)
Mechtild (Fighter 3)
Verinka (Changeling 2)
Hirelings: Gerung Floating Disk (MU 1), Elger, Guttural, Bero
This week we took Halfdan's threats to heart and prepared to return to level 2 of Nightwick in search of its famed underground gardens. Mayfly spends the week interrogated his golden skull which contains the soul of the Master, creator of the gardens. The Master suggests we check the area where we previously fought plant-like monsters.
Liminal Space spent the week practicing with the Butcher's cleaver (which we retrieved two weeks ago) until Mayfly studied it and pointed out that the axe spreads the wasting disease Bishop's Evil whenever it is swung. Luckily, Liminal had been practicing outdoors thus far and wasn't harmed, but bringing the weapon into the dungeon seems like a non-starter for now. We briefly consider having a Sotar consecrate it or trying to sell it to Halfdan.
Mechtilde spent the week feasting (per the carousing rules) and came away with a tapeworm! She'll be at -1 CON for at least a month.
As we prepare to go into the dungeon, we give some of our spare armor to the hirelings and Blossom buys a spear for Bero.
In Search of the Garden
And so we return to level 2, where we had been two weeks ago. We have a month to find the garden and return to Halfdan with clippings from it. We notice that the columns on the landing here are decorated in floral patterns - a good sign. The entry landing to this part of level 2 has three doors - north, east, and south. We've only ever gone east, where we can reach the tesla coils, the control panels, and the weird cabin.
This week, we open the door to the north and are immediately swarmed by several fungal zombies - masses of rotten flesh and fungal tissue.
Sotar is immediately hit for 6 damage but a zombie is killed in retaliation. From the zombie's wound, a cloud of fungal spores bursts forth. Mechtilde and Sotar, both on the front line, breathe some in.
Mayfly casts Web over the hallway, trapping most of the remaining zombies. Mechtilde and Sotar begin to feel weak and develop shaky hands from the spores.
Lights Out!
Verinka douses the trapped zombies in oil and Gerung throws a torch onto the web. He misses and the torch goes out, plunging us into darkness. Lesson learned - don't throw away your only lit torch.
In the dark, we hear the zombies continue to struggle against the web while we try to bindly light a new torch. Mayfly casts Light on his dagger. Eventually, we light a torch and Liminal throws it on the web successfully. The zombies in the web are burnt up along with the web! A lone zombie shambles forward, having been outside of the web, and Elger kills it with a thrown spear.
Poisoned and Dying
Sotar's condition is holding steady, but Mechtilde is feeling worse from the poison and starts shaking badly. Sotar, a healer by trade, thinks she doesn't have long. He applies his leeches to her and some dung for good measure (Sotar's background is a healer and these are a part of his starting gear).
We decide to return to town to seek out more leeches and help. On the way back, Sotar starts showing worse symptoms while Mechtilde stabilizes and improves.
Once out of the abbey, the woodsmen among our hirelings, Bero and Mikusch (waiting for us aboveground), lead us south of the abbey, not into town but to the River Deep, to find more leeches. This takes time and Sotar starts to worsen, but Mechtilde transfers the leeches onto Sotar and he hangs on, though they transfer him to Gerung's Floating Disk to move faster.
The Abbey Claims Another
On the way to the river, Mechtilde improves to the point where she thinks she's over the disease, but Gerung turns around and notices that Sotar has died!
After a brief moment, his body starts to twitch and he stands up on the disk. The party starts to flee. Gerung panics at first, unable to get away from Sotar, until he clears his head and drops the spell. Mayfly then blows up Zombie-Sotar with a single fireball. His armor is left behind, but damages, as with his maces, but his multiple spell scrolls are all burned to a crisp.
The surviving party members get 200xp each and return to the village for the night.
Session 53.5 - 21st of Elders, 1392
This week's adventurers:
Blossom (Rogue 4)
Mayfly (Magician 4)
Liminal Space (Changeling 3)
Verinka (Changeling 2)
Ulf (Magician 1)
Hirelings: Gerung Floating Disk (MU 1), Fredman (Fighter 1), Elger, Bero, Menczel
A Second Delve
The next day, the party picks up Ulf the Magician to replace Sotar. He had gone on a single delve into Nightwick almost a year ago and spent his time since then getting drunk in the Medusa's Head (Player's note: Ulf was a PC I rolled up when Sotar was out with a broken arm. Now's the time to pull him back into duty).
Mechtilde opts out of the next day's delve because her player went to bed she's tilting, so we bring along Fredman, who Liminal rescued from Knight Path, and a new hireling, Menczel, to replace her and her hireling Guttural Noises.
Back on Level 2
And so, on the 21st of Elders, we go back into the Abbey. Today, Mayfly thought to prepare ESP and as we step out onto the second floor, he scans the surrounding area. To the north, he hears a weird hive mind thought - he thinks the room has already refilled with zombies and we spike the door to the north. To the south, he hears a number of minds screaming in agony. To the east, he hears a number of small minds thinking of rocks - we think it's the rock-like dregs we've encountered before.
We decide to go the the Manimals on this level to ask them about the gardens. They can be pretty incomprehensible at times, but they know things about the abbey that we don't.
Dregs in the Deep
The hallway to the east is clear, but behind the door north to the control room are several rock-like rats - the dregs. Verinka casts Sleep, but three remain standing. Fredman and Menczel rush in, followed by Verinka with a spear. Verinka and Fredman kill two quickly but Menczel is badly hit (4 damage) but not killed. Fredman finishes it off as it runs away.
While we bind Menczel's wounds, Liminal searches a wall section of the control room. Our maps indicate that a hallway ends at the other side of the wall, so there's a possibility for a secret door, but he finds nothing.
The control room has 6 glowing glyphs that do....something. We debate messing around with them more, but Goldskull isn't helpful and so we move on.
Deals with the Manimals
Mayfly senses Manimals to the north, as we expect. Seeing Mayfly talk to his golden skull makes Ulf think of "obtaining" Sotar's skull to talk to, but apparently it did not survive Mayfly's Fireball.
We come to the Manimal's area of the dungeon and Plower greets us. Mayfly convinces them that he, himself, is the Master, and so they likely won't attack us. Liminal asks for Gardener, but Plower explains that that's too big of a job, but they have Harvester and other such themed Manimals.
We ask Plower for clippings from the garden and he agrees. He says he can obtain Sweet Leaf and Demon's Horn without a problem and to come back next week - it will take time to get around the zombies to get to the plants.
We also learn from the Manimals and the Master that Bloatus, the demon who lives on this level, made a big brain to control his zombies. This makes us think of the brain glyph in the control room.
Liminal Space offers the Manimals the Butcher's horn in exchange for extra clippings - at least on of every kind of plant. Plower agrees, and will even bring the clippings to the bottom of the stairs next week for that price.
A Peaceful Exit
We decide to trust in the Manimals and not poke around further in the area. We walk back to the control room and Ulf has an idea with the glyphs. He has Mayfly sense the thoughts to the south, the pained, tortured ones, while he turns on then off the brain glyph, thinking it might be connected to the brain. Mayfly senses nothing, however, and the mystery of what the glyph does remains.
Back at the landing, we debate going south with the time we have left, but Verinka listens at the door and hears something that sounds like a mewing cat or crying babies - probably the fire babies we've fought before. At that, we decide it's time to leave Nightwick for the night. As we leave through level 1, we briefly see the Blind Dead at the edge of our torchlight, but we nope on out...
Back in the Village
For our second delve, we each receive 52xp and a promise from the Manimals. Back in Nightwick, the party mourns their loss and drinks to Sotar's memory.
This session was a bit of a heartbreaker. Sotar was my first character when I joined the campaign. His death also represents the highest level death we've had in Nightwick - we haven't had anyone over level 2 die yet - proof that poison is no joke. It's these hight stakes that make our victories sweeter. When we defeated the Butcher or 2 weeks ago when we fought these same zombies with no losses. It really stresses the importance of taking fights on your terms. Last time, we knew to expect the zombies and had a plan for keeping them away. This time, they got the surprise on us and we were out of position and paid the price for it.
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